Bought property in Tokyo as a non-resident? You have 20 days to file under FEFTA — and from April 2026 purpose no longer matters

If you live outside Japan and acquire real estate here as a non-resident, you must file a report with the Minister of Finance through the Bank of Japan within 20 days of the acquisition. For acquisitions made on or after 1 April 2026, the real estate itself is reportable regardless of whether you bought it to live in or as an investment. There is no threshold for price or floor area.

This page sets out what a non-resident buyer files after completion — someone who bought a property in Tokyo while living outside Japan. It is confined to the buyer's side. For selling a property you already own (10.21% withholding, capital gains, choosing how to sell), see A guide to selling Japanese real estate for overseas owners. For letting or keeping your home after leaving Japan, see What to do with your home in Japan while you live overseas.

Last updated: 12 August 2026

How much have prime homes in Tokyo actually risen?

According to the Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100) in Knight Frank's The Wealth Report 2026 (20th edition), published in April 2026, prime residential prices worldwide rose by an average of 3.2% in 2025. Of the 100 markets tracked, 73 rose and 24 fell.

What Knight Frank is

An independent (unlisted) property consultancy founded in London in 1896 and headquartered in the United Kingdom. According to the firm, it operates around 600 offices across more than 50 markets, with over 20,000 people working in residential and commercial agency, valuation and investment advisory. It has a presence in Japan.

The Wealth Report has been published annually since 2007 and covers wealth and property; the 2026 edition is the 20th. At its core is PIRI 100 (the Prime International Residential Index), which tracks price movements in 100 prime residential markets worldwide. "Prime property" is defined in the report as the top 5% of the housing market by value in each location. This is not an average of the whole market but a measure of the top slice — a point you cannot skip when reading the numbers.

Note also that this is proprietary research compiled by a private firm from its own country research teams. It is not government statistics. It differs in character from the Japanese government survey discussed in the next section, which is a comprehensive tabulation based on registry data, so the practical approach is to read the two side by side.

Within that index, Tokyo rose 58.5% over twelve months, ranking first of the 100 markets. The report attributes the strength of Tokyo's new-build apartment market to scarcity of supply, low interest rates, and strong inward demand from the Asia-Pacific region.

Rank	Market	Change in 2025
1	Tokyo	+58.5%
2	Dubai	+25.1%
3	Manila	+17.5%
4	Seoul	+14.7%
5	Prague	+14.6%
…
13	Singapore	+7.9%
89	Hong Kong	-2.1%
94	Beijing	-4.9%
95	Shanghai	-5.0%
98	Shenzhen	-7.2%
100	Guangzhou	-12.2%

Over five years (2020 to 2025), Dubai leads at 193.9%, with Tokyo second at 159.3%.

The report also publishes how much space one million US dollars buys. Between 2020 and 2025, Tokyo shrank by 41% (Dubai -66%, Miami -40%, Los Angeles -28%). The area the same budget buys has fallen by four-tenths in five years — a figure showing that the premise that "Tokyo is cheap" has itself been eroding over these five years.

How much of Tokyo's new-build apartment stock is bought from abroad?

Here there is no need to estimate: there are government statistics based on the property registry. On 25 November 2025 Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) published its survey of new-build apartment transactions using property registration data. Working from registry information received from the Ministry of Justice, it covers roughly 550,000 new-build apartments in the three major metropolitan areas and four regional cities for which preservation registration was completed between January 2018 and June 2025.

Share of new-build apartments acquired by persons with an address outside Japan (January–June 2025)

Area	Share
Greater Tokyo	1.9%
Tokyo Metropolis	3.0%
The 23 wards of Tokyo	3.5%
The six central wards (Chiyoda, Chuo, Minato, Shinjuku, Bunkyo, Shibuya)	7.5%
of which Shinjuku	14.6%
of which Shibuya	8.1%
of which Chiyoda	7.7%
of which Bunkyo	5.0%
of which Minato	4.3%

The share rises the closer you get to the centre, reaching 7.5% in the six central wards. The survey states expressly, however, that the figure swings considerably depending on what kind of apartments were supplied in a given year.

New-build apartments in the 23 wards acquired by persons with an address outside Japan, by country and region (January–June 2025)

Country / region	Registrations
Taiwan	192
China	30
Singapore	21
Others (Hong Kong, UK, US and so on)	65
Total	308

The survey notes that China, Hong Kong and Taiwan were already prominent before the pandemic, and that Taiwan has recently become the largest source. Taiwan accounts for 192 of the 308 registrations, more than 60%.

Three things you cannot leave out when reading this

1. These are not statistics about foreign nationals. The survey classifies by whether the address in the owner's field of the property registry is inside or outside Japan. Nationality is not recorded in the registry, so acquisitions by foreign nationals resident in Japan, or by the Japanese branches of overseas companies, are not captured in these figures.
2. There is no visible skew towards expensive property. Broken down by price in the six central wards, the share acquired by persons with an address outside Japan is 3.2% below 200 million yen and 3.8% at 200 million yen and above.
3. Short-term trading is domestic. Of short-term trades in the 23 wards (transfer registration within a year of preservation registration), those by persons with an address outside Japan numbered 17 in January–June 2024, or 1.3% of all short-term trades. In the six central wards, short-term trades of property at 200 million yen and above included none from outside Japan.

In other words, two things have to be held at once: it is true that Taiwan is the largest source of buyers, and acquisitions from outside Japan account for 3.0% of the Tokyo Metropolis as a whole.

How is this seen from Taiwan?

The Taiwanese business daily Commercial Times, in an article of 22 July 2026 by the reporter Tsai Hui-fang, places this movement in the context of Taiwanese capital diversifying overseas. The paper's reading runs broadly as follows.

• Geopolitical risk and the relative weakness of the yen are accelerating overseas asset allocation by wealthy Taiwanese
• Alongside Japan, Singapore is gaining weight as a destination, and financial institutions in both Taiwan and Singapore have begun competing in private banking for high-net-worth Taiwanese clients
• The investment focus of wealthy Taiwanese is shifting from acquiring a single home to a diversified allocation across residential property, commercial property, hotels and alternative assets

Rather than the numbers, it is this reading — from buying one property to allocating assets — that matters in practice. Buying a single unit and keeping part of your wealth in Japan call for different decisions. What follows concerns the latter.

What does a non-resident file first after buying property in Japan?

A report under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act (Gaitame-ho, FEFTA).

Item	Details
Name of the form	Report on the acquisition of real estate in Japan or rights relating thereto (Form 22)
Who must file	The non-resident who acquired the property
Deadline	Within 20 days of acquisition
Where to file	The Minister of Finance, via the Bank of Japan
Monetary threshold	None (required regardless of price or floor area)
How to file	On paper, or through the online system

A "non-resident" means anyone other than a resident, a resident being an individual with an address or place of residence in Japan, or a corporation with its principal office in Japan (including the Japanese branch of a foreign company). If you buy an apartment in Tokyo while living in Taiwan, you fall within this reporting requirement.

Failing to file, or filing a false report, carries imprisonment for up to six months or a fine of up to 500,000 yen (FEFTA, Article 71, item 3). Note that this is a criminal penalty, not an administrative fine (karyo) of the kind imposed as an order-maintaining sanction.

What changed on 1 April 2026?

The scope of the reporting requirement widened. Treatment differs according to whether the acquisition date falls on or before 31 March 2026, or on or after 1 April 2026.

	Acquired on or before 31 March 2026	Acquired on or after 1 April 2026
What is reportable	Property acquired for investment and similar purposes	Property acquired regardless of purpose
Examples of exemptions	(1) Residential use by the person, a relative, an employee or other staff (2) For carrying on non-profit business (3) The person's own office (4) Acquired from another non-resident	(1) to (3) are confined to rights relating to real estate (leasehold, land lease rights and so on). (4) has been abolished
Form	The old form as a rule	The new form (the old form may be amended and used for the time being)

Two consequences matter most in practice.

• Even for residential use, buying the real estate itself is reportable. The Ministry of Finance's guidance indicates that where a building on leased land is acquired for residential purposes, the building itself falls within the reporting requirement. "I am going to live in it, so I do not need to file" is an easy misreading.
• The exclusion for sales between non-residents is gone. A transaction from an overseas owner to an overseas buyer now requires a report.

In addition, for acquisitions from 1 April 2026 the reportable items now include the counterparty (resident or non-resident), the purpose of acquisition (residential, investment and so on), and the property registration number. Because the registration number is required, part of the form cannot be completed until the registration itself is done. That has to be worked backwards against the 20-day deadline from the contract stage onwards.

Who can file it? Can I ask the agent?

The Ministry of Finance states that the report may be prepared and filed by the acquiring non-resident, or by an agent who is a resident of Japan, such as the real estate agent. Where an agent files, use of the online system is recommended.

Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. acts as broker on the sale and purchase in its capacity as a real estate brokerage business. Where documents have to be prepared for submission to a government office, the affiliated Yotsuba Administrative Scrivener Office (gyosei-shoshi — the Japanese qualification for preparing documents submitted to public authorities) takes that on under a separate contract. The two are independent businesses with separate contracts and separate fees, and no referral fees pass between them. Registration of transfer of ownership goes to a judicial scrivener (shiho-shoshi), and tax returns and payment to a licensed tax accountant (zeirishi), in each case under a contract you enter into directly.

How does a buyer with no Japanese seal certificate sign and register?

Japan's seal registration system assumes you have a residence record here. A buyer living outside Japan puts together documents such as a notarisation in the country of residence, or a certificate from a Japanese embassy or consulate, in place of a seal certificate. For how this works in Taiwan, see Taiwanese seal certificates and estate division agreements; for foreign nationals with a residence record in Japan, see Can a foreign national register a seal the same day?. Which documents will be accepted is for the judicial scrivener handling the registration to judge, so it is safest to work backwards from the completion date and start assembling papers early.

Once you have bought, who is the point of contact in Japan?

Holding property without an address in Japan means some documents will not reach you: the fixed asset tax notice, notices from the building management association, reminders about the tax return. The following need to be settled.

Decision	Notes
Tax agent (nozei kanrinin)	Appoint someone with an address in Japan and notify the tax office. Ask a licensed tax accountant directly to prepare the notification and file the return
Whether to let the property	If you do, and the tenant is a corporation or similar, 20.42% is withheld from the rent (details)
Post and contact details	Secure an address in Japan to receive mail
Care of the building	Inspection, ventilation and checking post if it is left empty

Is there anything to know now for when you eventually sell?

If the seller sells Japanese property while still a non-resident, the buyer incurs a withholding obligation. The buyer deducts and pays over 10.21% of the sale consideration (10% income tax plus 0.21% special reconstruction income tax), and the seller settles up through a tax return.

The exception is where the buyer is an individual acquiring the property for their own or a relative's residential use and the consideration is 100 million yen or less. Where the buyer is a corporation, withholding is required regardless of the amount.

In short, holding on as a non-resident means the buyer carries an extra step when you come to sell. Once a sale comes into view, it is worth working out at what point the resident/non-resident determination is made; the relationship between that determination and the handover date is set out in Is non-resident status determined by the handover date?. Calculating individual tax liabilities is a matter for a licensed tax accountant.

What can Yotsuba Real Estate take on?

Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (Kohinata, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo — five minutes' walk from Myogadani Station) handles investment and business-use property, and property enquiries in foreign languages. We can work in Chinese (both traditional and simplified characters).

• Investigating and proposing properties, and brokerage on sale and purchase — Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (real estate brokerage business)
• Preparing documents for submission to government offices — Yotsuba Administrative Scrivener Office (separate contract)
• Registration — directly with a judicial scrivener
• Tax returns and the tax agent notification — directly with a licensed tax accountant
• Contentious matters — directly with an attorney

Each is taken on as an independent business under an independent contract, and neither the company nor the office receives any referral fee.

For the whole picture on investment and business-use property see Investment and business-use real estate; for enquiries in Chinese see Chinese language support; for inheritance matters involving Taiwan see Cross-border inheritance with Taiwan.

What this article is based on

Prime residential prices (primary sources)

• Knight Frank, The Wealth Report 2026, 20th edition (published 23 April 2026), Prime International Residential Index (PIRI 100)
  Global average +3.2% / 73 of 100 markets up and 24 down / Tokyo +58.5% (1st) / over five years Dubai +193.9% and Tokyo +159.3% / five-year change in what one million US dollars buys (Dubai -66%, Tokyo -41%, Miami -40%, Los Angeles -28%)
  https://www.knightfrank.com/research/article/2026/4/piri-100-ultimate-prime-residential-property-index
• The firm's profile (founded in London in 1896, independent, over 50 markets, around 600 offices, more than 20,000 people) is from its own website
  https://www.knightfrank.com/about-us
• The definition of prime property as the top 5% by value in each market is from the glossary of The Wealth Report 2026

Acquisitions of new-build apartments from outside Japan (primary source)

• Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, "Publication of the survey of new-build apartment transactions using property registration data — short-term trading and acquisitions by persons resident outside Japan in the three major metropolitan areas and four regional cities" (25 November 2025), together with the annex "Survey and analysis of new-build apartment transactions using property registration data"
  Scope = approximately 550,000 new-build apartments with preservation registration between January 2018 and June 2025 / share acquired by persons with an address outside Japan, January–June 2025 (Tokyo Metropolis 3.0%, the 23 wards 3.5%, the six central wards 7.5%, Shinjuku 14.6%) / registrations in the 23 wards by country and region (Taiwan 192, China 30, Singapore 21, total 308) / share by price band in the six central wards (below 200 million yen 3.2%, 200 million yen and above 3.8%) / short-term trades in the 23 wards by persons with an address outside Japan, 17 in January–June 2024, or 1.3% of the total
  https://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/tochi_fudousan_kensetsugyo05_hh_000001_00237.html

Analysis and commentary from Taiwan

• Commercial Times, "Wealthy Taiwanese pile into overseas property: Tokyo prime homes up 159% in five years, Taiwanese become the largest foreign buyers" (reporter Tsai Hui-fang, 22 July 2026)
  This article draws only on the paper's own reading — Taiwanese capital diversifying overseas, Singapore standing alongside Japan, and the shift from single homes to diversified allocation. The figures for prices and unit numbers come from the primary sources above, not via that paper.
  https://www.ctee.com.tw/news/20260722702000-430601

Legal basis

• Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, Article 55-3, paragraph 1, item 12; Foreign Exchange Order, Article 18-5; Ministerial Ordinance on Reports of Foreign Exchange Transactions, Article 12 — reporting of acquisitions of real estate in Japan by non-residents
• Amendment to the Ministerial Ordinance on Reports of Foreign Exchange Transactions (promulgated 20 February 2026, in force 1 April 2026) — scope widened to acquisitions regardless of purpose; counterparty, purpose of acquisition and property registration number added to the reportable items
• Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, Article 71, item 3 — penalty for failing to file, or filing a false report, under Article 55-3, paragraph 1 (imprisonment for up to six months or a fine of up to 500,000 yen)
• Ministry of Finance, "Filing the report on the acquisition of real estate in Japan or rights relating thereto under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act" (June 2026)
  https://www.mof.go.jp/policy/international_policy/gaitame_kawase/real_property/
• Income Tax Act, Articles 161, 164, 212 and 213; Order for Enforcement of the Income Tax Act, Article 281-3; Act on Special Measures for Securing Financial Resources for Reconstruction, Articles 8, 9, 10 and 28 — 10.21% withholding on purchases of land and similar from non-residents (National Tax Agency, Taxanswer No.2879)
• National Tax Agency, Taxanswer No.1932, "Selling real estate while working overseas" — no withholding where the consideration is 100 million yen or less and the buyer acquires for their own or a relative's residential use; notification of a tax agent

Not verified

• The 2025 increase for Taipei (+0.1%) reported by Commercial Times, and the ranking that paper gave, could not be confirmed in the publicly available parts of Knight Frank's report, and are therefore not carried in this article.

This article provides general information only. It is not a legal or tax judgement on any individual case. How any particular set of circumstances is handled requires confirmation by a qualified professional. We introduce you to a licensed tax accountant for tax matters, a judicial scrivener for registration, and an attorney for contentious matters, in each case under a contract you enter into directly.

About the author Joji Uramatsu | Representative Director of Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. and its full-time Real Estate Transaction Specialist (takken-shi). Administrative scrivener. Former China Bureau Chief of the Mainichi Shimbun, with 34 years as a journalist; posted to China, Taiwan and Thailand in that role. Passed the Certified Social Insurance and Labour Consultant examination (practice scheduled to open September 2026).

Related links

• Investment and business-use real estate
• A guide to selling Japanese real estate for overseas owners (the selling side)
• What to do with your home in Japan while you live overseas (letting, keeping)
• Chinese language support
• Contact us